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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29534862">on the other side like always</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nyxierose/pseuds/Nyxierose'>Nyxierose</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Revolution (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/M, Ficlet Collection</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-15 18:33:32</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,426</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29534862</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nyxierose/pseuds/Nyxierose</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Assorted prompt fills and shorter ficlets, generally unconnected and variable ratings.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Charlie Matheson/Bass Monroe</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>31</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. do whatever</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Amazingly I've been writing these babes on and off for SEVEN YEARS and never bothered to start a cross-post file, but... here we are! Compilation title from "What Kind Of Man" by Florence + The Machine. All of these are also posted at least in part on my tumblr @electricbluebutterflies, so send prompts there if you are so inclined!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Charlie may be young and relatively inexperienced, but she’s smarter than most people give her credit for.</p>
<p>She knows, as much as she hates to admit it, that a young woman alone is vulnerable. She knows that all too well, has had too many close calls these past few months. She’s gotten lucky – no total tragedy yet, at worst a few unwanted kisses before a knife somewhere unexpected has solved her problems. But luck is a delicate thing, and she knows her clock is temporarily paused but not stopped forever, and-</p>
<p>As she and her companion walk into a bar like far too many others, she half thinks about reaching for his hand. Claimed women don’t have these problems. Claimed women don’t have to pray their reflexes stay good. Especially places like here, in this patch of nowhere where strength is everything.</p>
<p>As much as she hates to admit it in her mind, and will never say out loud because she knows that’ll go to his head, Monroe is… not the <em>worst</em> person she could be stuck with? Yes, he’s a hot mess of unresolved issues caused by various people she’s related to and wrapped up in a blanket of unpredictable rage, but on some level that’s why she almost trusts him. Because he’s the sort of man people generally do not screw with, and being in close proximity keeps her safe.</p>
<p>That part, at least, she may try to tell him. But not here. Not now.</p>
<p>“Stay where I can see you,” he breathes almost too low to even be a whisper. Verbally communicating strategy is clearly a new problem for him, but this is at least reasonable. Given the size of this bar, the only way she could get out of view would be if she went in whatever passes for a storage closet here and-</p>
<p>She’s half tempted to find someone here to screw, just for the sole purpose of irritating her minder. She’d love to hear <em>that</em> talk about morality, see how long it takes him to forget she’s twenty-two. Not a kid. Old enough to want. And more than old enough to be wanted, from the looks she’s getting.</p>
<p>“I’m staying close enough you can grab me,” she counters, meaning it.</p>
<p>This is the first time they’ve attempted this level of public interaction, about a week into the combined-purposes road trip they are apparently doing. It’s different in outdoor daylight, when she can more easily stand back and watch him try to be charming and mostly succeed. Charlie is far from shy, she just… realizes she’s out of her depth here, can’t do the people skills on the same level as her counterpart, and it’s easier to let go. Easier, after that one terrifying night, to trust he’s more honorable than she ever could’ve thought.</p>
<p>She lets him lead, lets him get drinks for them, stays quiet and focuses on scanning the room. In all likelihood, no one here is a direct threat. One or two men she’d rather not have to fight, but from the looks of it they’re just as likely to go at each other and-</p>
<p>“Whatever I do, just go with it.”</p>
<p>She turns her head and glares at Monroe – that too is a sign she’s getting more comfortable with him. “Vague and unhelpful…”</p>
<p>“I’ll explain after it happens.”</p>
<p>“You’re a-“</p>
<p>Whatever she was going to call him, and there is a long list of things she’d like to get through, does not matter because suddenly his mouth is on hers. The warning makes sense now – this is sudden and surprising, yet not forceful or unwanted. Just enough of a kiss to prove a point, his hand on her backside and his mouth covering any possible reaction she may have yet she is still warmed by it. He’s not that kind of man, she reminds herself. This isn’t enough reason to slit his throat later.</p>
<p>“The hell was that,” she hisses when he breaks the kiss and she’s licked the taste of him off her lips yet they’re still too close.</p>
<p>“Someone over there-“ he tilts his head just slightly in the general direction of one of her potential threats, confirming her good eye- “was wondering to their friend if I’d sell you. We need to work on our cover.”</p>
<p>“I’m not sure how sticking your tongue in my mouth is convincing, but-“</p>
<p>“Next time there’ll be a better plan.”</p>
<p>Charlie is half tempted to suggest that cutting her hair and binding her breasts might be a better plan, but… now isn’t the time. Not a good idea to try to lose the protection she enjoys.</p>
<p>“As long as you warn me, do whatever.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. an offer he can't refuse</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Prompt: hug after not seeing someone for a long time</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It’s been near two years since he’s seen her.</p><p>Two years isn’t a long time against his surprisingly long life, his mid-forties fading into something almost quiet and respectable like nobody who’s ever known him would’ve predicted. He’s finally done what he always meant to do before circumstances went to shit, settled down somewhere quiet and tried to make a life. Almost started over.</p><p>That’s why he’s so surprised to see her in town on one of the rare days he comes out, still beautiful as ever but for a moment he cannot believe she is real.</p><p>Charlie looks almost as he remembers her, beautiful creature – yes he knows she’d be less than thrilled with that comment but he is a man and he has decently functional eyes – with that don’t-fuck-with-me glow that turns into something much warmer when she sees him. So, she’s real. She’s actually here. If she were a ghost, Bass thinks, she’d be meaner. He’d deserve that out of a haunting.</p><p>As it is, she walks towards him like a good dream, swinging her hips just a little bit as she approaches.</p><p>“You got boring.” She smiles, the real kind not the homicidal kind. “Missed you.”</p><p>Then she does another wild thing and puts her arms around him.</p><p>Fine, so he never knew her that well and there are a lot of moral lines he was trying to stay on the right side of, but he never got the vibe that Charlie is the affectionate type. Girl is not tactile, has probably never said I love you to anything that didn’t bark or meow, and kept space from everyone but from him especially. He can’t say he blames her for that, but-</p><p>Who the hell is he to turn down any warmth from a beautiful woman from his past who’s gone and re-entered his life in a public space. He wraps his arms around her, holds her just a little tighter than he should. Did he ever allow himself to notice how small she is before? He is noticing it right now, and it is alright, and he is not hurting her, and-</p><p>“What are you doing here?” he murmurs, letting his head rest against hers. His hands tangle in the ends of her hair, somehow even longer than he remembers. She’s come into herself in their separation, but still close enough to the girl he wanted to be close to.</p><p>“Heard it’s just you and some goats a mile from anybody else,” she shrugs, breaking the embrace but not backing away. “Figure I’ve burned my other bridges, and getting married was a mistake, so… I’ll earn my keep, promise.”</p><p>Well that’s an offer he can’t refuse. “You sure you can handle that?”</p><p>“I can tackle a goat. I know they’re assholes but-“</p><p>“The quiet of it, I mean.”</p><p>“After the year I have had, quiet sounds <em>great</em>,” she replies. “As long as I wouldn’t be… getting in the way of anything?”</p><p>It takes Bass an annoyingly long moment to catch her implications. No, she would not be. He’s more or less given up on any form of dating, more or less gave up well before she existed in his world. Even if he hadn’t, the pool of potential partners out here is more like a puddle and he doesn’t feel like acting like a duck.</p><p>“Confirmed bachelor,” he says, hoping that’s enough to cover it. “Most companionship I have is a cat.”</p><p>“Sounds like heaven.”</p><p>“I have to pick up a few things, but… wait here for me?”</p><p>“Can do.”</p><p>And there goes his quiet, he thinks as he walks off, glancing over his shoulder to make sure she stays. There goes every shred of this latest reinvention, because that girl is about to make him into something else without even knowing. How could he ever say no.</p>
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